Raffi’s chattering away as he holds a spoon, puts it down, and bends down to pick it back up. I walk away for a minute, just a minute, to get a glass of water. I hear silence suddenly and I know he’s causing trouble. I walk back into the living room and POOF! Raffi is invisible.

I don’t panic because the living room is safe for roaming babies. The room is small and cozy, but in this moment it feels as big as a football field. I finally find my sneaky son, still silent, eyes as wide as saucers, chesire cat teeth smiling at me.

Where was he, you ask? He had shimmied himself behind our large storage trunk and was holding onto a wire for dear life. He was thrilled that he found a hideaway and that it was well stocked with his favorite off limits toy. Trouble. Maker.

By the way, if you’re ever looking for a wire in your house, let my son loose and he’ll find it in 2 minutes.

Another day I put Raffi down for his nap and went downstairs to have a cup of tea and work, as usual. I turned the monitor sound on but didn’t think to check the video. I enjoyed the silence as he had been dodging the second nap for a few days. I was so excited that he was napping! After 40 minutes, however, my mother’s intuition hit me and my stomach was doing flip flops. There is no way he could be sleeping. I checked the video monitor and I was right.

Raffi had pulled off all of the crib protectors and thrown half overboard and had the other half in his crib with him. I ran upstairs two at a time, and when I walked in he gave me an innocent-but-I-know-you-caught-me look. He was busted, but only after he had a nice crib rail snack. Oh, and forgot to mention he had also taken off his pants.

The same day as the crib protector incident I brought Raffi into the bathroom with me so I could shower quickly. Raffi whines the entire time in the pack and play and I was due for just a quick shower. I removed the toilet paper roll and garbage bin and let him be free in the bathroom. He did his usual routine of opening and slamming all the drawers, so I relaxed and turned toward the hot water, enjoying my ten seconds of serenity. Trig was away for work and I needed that moment. BIG BIG MISTAKE. Again, his normal nonstop chattering had stopped and I knew trouble was brewing. I turned back around and Raffi looked me straight in the eye as he dumped out my makeup bin.

That was a long day.

I never understood how my mom had eyes in the back of her head and knew we were up to no good, but now I know better. Sound is a very useful tool to know what your child is doing. Raffi knows when he’s being a bad boy and will become quiet as a mouse as he attempts to eat a wire, climb the couch, dump out a kitchen drawer, take his pants off, throw food off the highchair….. I could probably list 30 things here.

Instead, I’ll let you share your stories.

Sabrina, of RhodeyGirl Tests, had her first boy in September 2011 with her husband Trig. At the time of this post Raffi was 11 months old. You can read other related posts on her blog.

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Haha, welcome to toddlerhood! Well, just don’t consider these to being naughty acts. It’s just his way for discovering the world in detail… He is silenced because he is astonished to discover something new and not necessarily because he understands he is being naughty. It’s just that his brain is working overtime over this new thing he can do / he finds / he sees. And yes, you need to grow pair of eyes everywhere!

I’m not so lucky with silence – my son can do his trick and babble all the way through it…Still, when I don’t hear him, I am just like you – I worry and go check on him.

Ann

What’s the saying??? Silence is golden,unless you have a toddler. Then its downright suspicious.

sharon in prague

No kidding. For the last two days I have gone into to find his sleeper, binkis, socks, blankets, and anything else he can reach from his crib, on the floor. SOOOO mad! It is not cute.

Lynn M

hahaha!! I cannot tell you how many times a day I say “Reece is too quiet” and yep it usually means he’s doing something he knows he shouldn’t be and his facial expression when getting caught is a dead giveaway he knows, lol. I love when he taps himself on the forehead when I say to him “you know that is a no-touch” with a “i forgot” expression. I’ll say to him “dont give me the I forgot look, mommy knows your smart and know” he will then giggle and run over to give me a hug & kiss, little charmer knows mommy is a sucker for the hugs and kisses oh what’s with the wires? My son also bee lines for all wires, you think there well hidden and 20seconds or less he finds them, lol!

Was Living Down Under

That face is too cute!

I remember once thinking how good by little girl was being while I was taking care of her little sister’s ‘poop’splosion. I came out of the bathroom and she said excitedly, “mummy look, mummy look!”. Sure enough there was a crayon masterpiece on the wall – from the floor up to where she could reach her arm. Beautiful!

Muminspain

Ha ha! Yep, it’s when they go silent they’re up to something. I remember one day my just-turned-one-year-old (who hadn’t yet been introduced to peanuts or any nuts) was playing in the living room and i went to wash some dishes. Thirty seconds later the silence told me that something was afoot. I found her crouched on top of the coffee table stuffing handfuls of salted peanuts into her mouth from an open packet. Luckily it turned out she didn’t have a nut allergy!

Holly Lamb

When my daughter was about 2 1/2 she was playing in her room, but it was very quiet. I went to check on her and she had located an old diaper bag with a forgotten tube of A&D ointment in it. She was smearing the A&D ointment all over her body and in her hair. When I asked what she was doing (very calming) she told me that she was putting lotion on. A&D ointment is very hard to wash out of a child’s hair, so make sure they can’t find it.

When my younger brother was about 2 years old, he found a sharpie marker and drew all over his body. Took days to for my mom to get it all off.

Melissa Fischer

You can ALWAYS tell which of my friends don’t have kids. While they are all- oh this is nice they’re playing quietly- MY mind is going- What are they up to? its tooooo quiet!
lol

Michele

When my youngest was about 2 she got into the Triple Paste and was covered in it! Yes she was being very quiet at the time.

Lucie-Lou

DS is always into something, and the silence always clues me in.

A trick my MIL uses, and this works with permenant marker, ink, etc. “wash” the skin with butter and the marker or ink will come off.

DS once coated both of his shins from knee to ankle with black permenant marker. My MIL sat him on the counter with his feet in the sink, took some paper towels, and scubbed his legs with butter and voila! it all came off.

Butter also gets all sorts of stuff out of hair too. DS once had an EEG(? brain scan) and they’d used this funky glue gel stuff to stick the electrodes to his head. The next day with the nurse too the stuff off she said the goo would take a week or so to come out. Butter cleaned him right up. (I have also used Johnsons baby shampoo straight up with no water and that works too).

http://agirlcalledshroom.tumblr.com/ Pennie

My mom likes to tell the story of the time she found me on her bed covered in baby powder.

I have a 25 month old and a newly walking 11 month old; if I turn away for a ONE MINUTE they’ll both be in another room. With the door closed.

Areej

I have to make sure the bathroom doors are closed since twice I caught my two year old, Fares, with the toilet brush in hand! It was beyond gross. He also started hiding around the house about 6 months ago without making a sound! It is the scariest thing in the world not finding your toddler, and not having him make a sound as you call his name. I usually find him hiding with a big old smile, since to him, it’s just one of those games he gets to play with mom!

alphamale

You know ladies, it doesn’t hurt to let the kids just be by themselves once in a while as long as they are in a safe environment.

I totaly understand the protective mother goose attitude, because even I am protective about my kids, but there has to be balance. There is such a thing as being over-protective. After all, you eventualy want them to become independent and one can’t start early enough with that. It’s character forming.

One of the things I do when my son ‘disappears’ is to pretend we’re playing hide and seek. He loves it, so do I.

Plus, not always jumping when they ‘need’ something, is a good thing to. It promotes self soothing and independence and teaches them to delay gratification.

http://momformation Hilary

Raffi is so cute and my goodness can I recall exactly those suddently too quiet moments with my babies, when intuition, as you put it, would just kick in.For my youngest, who is now 4yrs old, it was playing in the toilet (gross) or putting toys, chalk basically anything not nailed down into his mouth.Oh and I can’t forget climbing shelves, washers, dryers, anything vertical by age 10mos.FYI I very soon started tapping down the toilet lid along with keeping the bathroom door closed as much as possible.

Juliana

I haven’t had that yet with my 13 month old, although he isn’t a big fan of being alone so it’s not common for him to be out of sight. I will have to watch out;-)

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